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This is my own perspective, formed over most of my adult life and especially the 12 years of my professional career, including the thoughts and comments of my colleagues and friends along the way. I've read nursing journals and other media reports and articles on the subject, looking in vain for anything that bore any resemblance to the truth. I've seen very little truth, but a great deal of useless rhetoric and political spin. It is long past time for the truth to be told. If you want the truth, read this. The greatest part of the problem in nursing is the same as it is in every other aspect of our lives, including all professional and skilled occupations. Our lives and property have been hijacked by government bureaucrats and unconstitutional "laws". There is no aspect of our lives that has not been damaged by government micro management, mismanagement and interference, but in the medical field those insidious problems costs lives and contributes to the suffering of countless Americans in too many ways to describe. This monster in the driver's seat is 99% of the cause of our current crisis in medicine, our country's economy problems, the fact that most businesses fail (or are hanging on by their fingernails), two income families that can't make ends meet, and the fact that the retirement of most Americans will not be "golden" at all, but will be dominated by grinding poverty and sickness as all of the "programs" disintegrate. They were supposedly financed by our stolen income and property, but that money has again been re-stolen and used for all of the socialistic nonsense and foreign aide that has destroyed America's relationships with everyone else on the planet! Our lives and property have been stolen to create global disaster! Just think about how much could have been saved and invested if it had not been stolen! Have you considered, truthfully, how this 800 pound gorilla - that sits in the driver's seat - has distorted and destroyed most of our capacity to follow our mission statements and arrive at our stated goals, and conduct business so that we can make a profit? Or have you played the game so many do, acting as if there is some magic combination of paperwork and time management that can fulfill the insane demands of this gorilla while also resulting in job satisfaction and efficient, profitable operation of the company. How long will it take for you to come to the only intelligent conclusion? It is just not possible. Myth #1
Government is necessary to protect patients (consumers, people, whatever category you want to use) A. Do a real comparison between medicine (just as an example -- try anything else as well) as practiced before Medicare, HICFA, DEA, FDA, and all of the other ball and chain agencies that pretend to help. Are they preventing abuse, mismanagement, waste, fraud, and so forth with useful programs that help Americans? No! They are useless time and resource wasters, micro managing to the point of utter confusion with contradictory and arbitrary "rules" and "regulations" that fill large volumes of small print and tangle everyone into a situation that makes it impossible to understand them or comply no matter how desperately anyone works at it. The real question is "Why"? Why do we go on -- year after insane year -- allowing ourselves to be abused like this, our intelligence and integrity insulted at every turn, our resources wasted, and our people driven to misery, disillusionment, despair, and ultimately looking for another way to make a living!? Why? Name one reason we should continue that. Name one reason we should not at least acknowledge the fact that this IS the PROBLEM! B. Who is responsible for our lives, safety, retirement, health, integrity, anything else to do with us as individuals. WE ARE! Each individual is responsible for themselves. We are perfectly free to help each other voluntarily, but there is no provision in the law of God or the Constitution of the US for government to assume more than a passing interest in any of this. Their only function is to protect our national security from foreign invasion. PERIOD. Government is not reason, or benevolent caretaker. The only product of government is force. The only money they have is what is first stolen from the people. States have no right to invade personal responsibility either, only to investigate and prosecute complaints of force or fraud, and to make provision for restitution and punishment for those found guilty. Individuals have total responsibility and control over what they eat, drink, smoke, take or do. Only force or fraud against another person is in their province to deal with, and that strictly by rule of law, "innocent until proven guilty", and in recognition of our God given rights. The most destructive actions of our present government revolve around this usurpation of personal rights and self-responsibility in the form of prohibitions and regulations to control everything. The "war on drugs" (the most horrible example) has resulted in untold suffering, death, the creation of a vast empire of crime and murder, corruption and evil beyond measure. Drugs don't cause crime. Prohibition does. Myth #2
Profit is "bad", or less honorable somehow than "nonprofit". Unfortunately, ordinary "profit" has become difficult to distinguish from the immoral gain accomplished by some big business that has made an unholy marriage with government to get preferential treatment by force of unconstitutional law. The terrible burden of taxes, regulations (which cost even more) and the extortion of unions and special interest groups have driven even otherwise honorable businesses to try finding ways to reduce those burdens just to stay viable. Those without integrity find a vast wealth of opportunity to "profit" in ways that would be impossible under a strict constitutional rule of law. The role of government is to protect and enforce the constitution and that rule of law. It is not supposed to juggle things for the benefit of a few at the expense of the many. All business gets the black eye, instead of the government that made it possible and allowed it to continue. The people who are screaming about, and plotting to destroy, the "profit" of business -- including health care and pharmacy -- don't give a thought to the incredible weight of tax and regulation costs that must be paid first. Then, any possible profit is taxed again! We are all punished for being productive and earning our way. Those who are unproductive and wasteful are rewarded with what was stolen from the productive. The miracle of American ingenuity and integrity is evident in the fact that there are so many who still try, but they are being beaten down daily and at some point there will not be anyone left to rob. What happens to all of the socialist redistribution of wealth when there is nobody left to create that wealth? Unfortunately, it seems we will be forced to get to that point before ordinary people see the lie of "government funding". Myth # 3
Without government regulation, the "poor", ethnic minorities, women, etc. would face destructive discrimination. Please describe for me a single instance where any of them have ultimately benefited from government interventions here -- keeping in mind the absolute requirement for individual self responsibility rather than government responsibility. Then consider the staggering cost to everyone, especially the poor and minorities who can't find jobs because the cost of compliance with all the regulations makes it too expensive to hire them at all! Even the vaunted "civil rights" legislation and activity was in response to and required because of government interventions in the relationships between people. The "Jim Crow" nonsense was by LAW!!! Evil people (there will always be evil people) took advantage of those laws to do great harm. If the constitutional rule of law, "all men are created equal" had been in place instead of the crippling "reconstruction" insanity left over from the war between the states (more accurately, the war of northern aggression) and the rest of government interference in men's lives, none of that would have happened or been necessary. Please read some REAL history, not the government whitewash of it. As a result of all this concern for minorities and women, etc. we have had the terrors of "affirmative action," quotas, and so much more that placed an artificial reverse discrimination for any sound business reasons for hiring and firing decisions, college administration, or almost anything else. The truth is that each and every person has not only the right, but the responsibility to "discriminate" in whatever way they choose for their own benefit and that of their business or institution. Only government itself has no right to discriminate on ANY basis -- neither against nor FOR any one over another. ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL -- in opportunity and before the law, not in the outcomes of their lives and fortunes. The individual is responsible for taking that opportunity and equality before the law and making the most of it himself, with full responsibility for the results. The tragedy is that all of these things are almost universally ignored in our discussions of the problems and our attempts to plan solutions. When will we learn that there is no solution possible until the real problem is addressed and work begins to overcome it? Specific application to nursing and the nursing "shortage". A. First and worst is the truly insane and overwhelming requirement of attempting to satisfy the regulations. There is no compensation possible for the frustration and anger produced by the endless, redundant, useless and counterproductive paperwork, reporting, meetings, and so forth. The stark fact is that any nurse worth anything would and should be spending this time taking care of patient and family needs. B. Business decisions driven by these same useless regulations that distort the priorities of our work and drain resources that would much better be used for patient care and employee compensation. Over time, this endless nonsense destroys morale and dedication to the real work. C. Insecurity and instability in every aspect play a large part in the destruction of employee satisfaction and retention. The roller coaster of changing rules, the constant juggle of people and services, and the knowledge that a single bureaucrat could close the whole operation down with no warning at all... prevent the solid foundation of long term planning and investment of loyalty and the team effort that is so vital to what we do. How do you invest your life and loyalty in a "team" that changes constantly or a company that may vanish tomorrow? Did business create these problems? No. Can business solve these problems on their own? No. Can they acknowledge them and begin to mitigate them, fight them, work toward real solutions and stop adding to them on their own? Of course! As long as we, as a nation, continue to insist that government "protect" us and provide things for us that are our own responsibility, we will continue to bear this insurmountable burden. As long as we insist that government be responsible for and pay for medical care and almost everything else, we will have to wear this straight jacket we have on now. We have the choice. We can't have it both ways. Liberty and prosperity, or government "protection" and death as a nation; the choice seems so simple. What is your choice?
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Brought to you by Susan Callaway, R.N.
